


Pearls On A String

by belivaird_st



Category: Cinderella (1950), Cinderella (2015), Cinderella (Fairy Tale), Cinderella - All Media Types
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 00:29:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18884425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belivaird_st/pseuds/belivaird_st
Summary: A typical domestic life for Cinderella who gets a special gift from her stepmother.





	1. Chapter 1

It was one of her girls that noticed the pink pearls on display. Laid out on a velvet pillow behind a large glass window, Anastasia, or was it Drizella? Squealed excitedly at the top of her lungs, tugging her mother’s arm, and pointing a finger for her to look at the pretty necklace.

"Oh Mother, will you look at those beads? They're gorgeous!"

"I saw the pearls first! I should wear them!"

"That is far from true, Mother!"

"Girls, please, enough with the squalling," Lady Tremaine moaned, feeling a headache forming. "Neither one of you will be getting anything if you don't shut your mouths at once!"

"Yes, Mother," both her girls chorused.

They all went inside the cloth department store and browsed around. Of course, both sisters started touching accessories and trying on garments. With their backs turned, their mother purchased the pink granite pearl necklace and kept it hidden inside her velvet coin purse.

Cinderella was stirring a load of laundry around inside a boiling pot of water by the time her stepmother and stepsisters got back from the village. Letting go of the long wooden paddle, she wiped her hands on her apron and rushed out of the cobwebby cellar. She rushed to the foyer to collect hats, gloves, and scarves.

"How was the village? Did you all have a lovely time?" Ella asked, wobbling on her feet slightly from the pile of clothes being stacked in her arms.

"We were privileged to see the most marvelous string of pearls!" Drizella exclaimed.

"I saw them first, by the way," Anastasia pointed out.

Drizella slapped her. "That was me, you nitwit!"

Anastasia slapped her back. 

"Mother!"

"Mother!"

"Make us some tea," Lady Tremaine ordered, cupping her forehead with one polished nail hand.

"Yes, Madam," Cinderella nodded.

In the kitchen, Lucifer whined with hunger at the stove, flickering his bushy tail.

"You’ll just have to wait, Lucifer," Cinderella murmured, pouring hot boiled water into all three cups on a wooden tray. The cat growled and pouted some more. He glared at Ella before padding his way toward his empty food dish and gazed down at it bitterly.

"It's about time," Drizella scoffed, taking her tea from her ashy faced stepsister.

"Thank you, Ella," Anastasia said, sweetly, surprising both her sister and mother and even Cinderella, the moment she brought her teacup close to her lips. 

"Y-Your welcome," Cinderella stammered. She bowed her head as soon as she held the last cup of tea towards her stepmother.

"It seems we have a rodent problem down in the cellar," Lady Tremaine declared, reaching for her hot drink. "Did you set those traps like I asked?" 

"No, Madam," Cinderella whispered. 

"Why not?"

"Because, Mother, those mice are her friends!" Drizella said, making a face.

Anastasia shuddered and sipped her tea.

"How unfortunate for them," Lady Tremaine smirked on the velvet throne chair. "Lucifer will just have to get rid of them, himself!"


	2. Chapter 2

Cinderella went back into the kitchen hearing the wicked laughter of all three Tremaines trailing after her, making her hands grip tightly at her sides. She headed straight for the cupboard and pulled out a few things to make Lucifer’s dinner. The cat was lying on top of a bread box, his eyes narrowing into slits. He laid between his paws and watched Cinderella make a batch of tuna in a bowl.

When the tuna was mixed well and ready, Cinderella dumped the moist contents inside Lucifer’s food dish. “There,” she said, scraping off the last bits of the watery mush with a wooden spoon. “Go ahead and eat your supper, Lucifer!”

The cat simply sneered back at her with a small twitch from one of his pointed ears. 

“Cinderella!” that horrible nickname was being called for. She hurried back to the parlor to collect empty teacups and saucers while listening to all the chores that had to be done for the rest of the evening.

After brushing and braiding Anastasia’s hair, filling up a warm lavender bubble bath for Drizella, ironing all of Stepmother’s gowns and skirts, polishing the silverware, and folding the linen away, Cinderella finally made her way back to the cellar to warn her furry friends about the threat of Lucifer.

“Gather up, all of you,” she instructed the five brown field mice—Jaq, Gus, Mary, and the twins, Bert & Mert—on a white dinner plate with slices of cheddar cheese she had cut on a wooden board upstairs. The mice scurried onto the plate with their noses sniffing the cheese. Gus was already dragging a chunk of one slice across the plate far away from the others.

“Listen to me—I want you all to find a better hiding spot than the cellar,” Cinderella explained. “Stepmother can hear you at night, and Lucifer is becoming more and more ravenous. Try to settle up in the attic, instead, you got that? Is everyone listening to me?”

The mice squeaked and twitched in response. Jaq, the leader of the group, sat up on his haunches and wiggled his nose high in the air as a solute. 

“Very good,” Cinderella smiled. She heard the cellar door pull open with a pair of heels stepping down the cinderblock steps. The mice scattered off the dinner plate to hide behind the cracks beneath the concrete walls. Cinderella quickly snatched up the cheese and shoved them inside the pockets of her apron. Heart pounding wildly with her mouth gone dry, she watched her stepmother appear before her, holding onto her coin purse.

“You finished everything already?” Lady Tremaine asked, raising her chin.

“Y-Yes, Madam,” Cinderella bowed her head. “I even threw all the mice out into the yard.”

A disappointing click of her teeth came out of the stepmother, but nevertheless, she carried on. 

“I must say, you have been doing exceptionally well with the rooms. The cleaning. The cooking.”

“Thank you, Madam,” Cinderella bowed again.

“And for that, I reward you,” Lady Tremaine went on, unclamping the coin purse to lift out the pearl necklace. It looked very similar to the one Ella wore for her night at the ball, but sadly, that necklace broke loose and scattered into a million pieces by an angry, bratty Drizella.

“Oh Stepmother—” Cinderella began, holding her palms out with the necklace slipping into them. She kissed the beads while Lady Tremaine gestured for her to turn around so she could try it on. 

“You swear to secrecy this necklace doesn’t see the light of day by the eyes of your sisters?” 

“Yes, Madam. Thank you! It’s beautiful!” Cinderella gushed, brushing her fingers along the pearls the moment her stepmother hooked the string around her neck and pressed a hand behind the small part of the girl’s back.


End file.
